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The Viking Longship, Draken, Was Hauled out of the Fore River Via a New Travelift at PYS.

The Captain of the Draken (Whose Head I Accidentally Eliminated) With an Employee of PYS This Afternoon. (Sorry Abdou, I misplaced my notes with the spelling of your name. Will keep trying to find it)

Paul Hauterbiak, Field Service Tech, for Marine Travelift, Shows the Remote Control for This Blogger. The Size of this Travelift is 330 Metric Tons – one of the Largest in Maine.

The 100 ft. Westward Was Lifted Out of the “Basin” This Morning at PYS as a Test of the Equipment. It Passed Easily!

A brand new marine travelift was inaugurated today when it hauled two boats from the Fore River to shore; the historic event occurred at Portland Yacht Services where the 115 ft. Draken was hauled under sunny skies and warm temperatures diluted by a breeze off the water and lots of water consumption. Portland Yacht Services is located at 100 West Commercial Street, Portland.

Over the next several days the Draken will have bearings on the propellor shaft repaired. It is also expected that some of the twenty-eight (28) multi-cultural crew members will paint the hull of the boat. If all goes as planned, the Draken will leave Portland on Friday, August 3rd according to the captain. As of this afternoon he was uncertain as to the next port for the Draken. He suggested it depends largely on how repairs go at PYS. The crew expected to stay at a Hostel in Portland for the next two nights while Draken, the replica of a Viking boat, is repaired.

Last weekend the Draken was docked at 58 Fore Street, a/k/a Portland Foreside, where it gave deck tours of the Viking ship that is on a fifteen (15) city East Coast Tour for 2018. The event was hosted by TallShipsPortland, although it was not a fundraiser for the non-profit.

The first boat to be hauled this morning was the Westward; it was hauled out of the water as a so-called experiment. It was actually a test since it was the first time the Marine Travelift, of Wisconsin, was used. Paul Hauterbiak, field service tech, for the company was on site all day. His job was to make certain that every aspect of the hauling went properly – that every part worked correctly. He also was training an employee of PYS on how to use the remote control to raise and lower the boat in the basin of water. The remote control cost about $12,000.00.

Hauling the Westward out of the water took close to five (5) hours this morning. That was because the movement of the boat was frequently stopped or dropped or raised from the basin because the straps around it had to be adjusted – moved forward or backward for balance purposes. Both haulings went extremely smoothly, if not slowly for the Westward.

A preprogramned plan was provided in advance of the hauling by Marine Travelift which had to be adhered to for safety according to Jason Curtis, VP of Operations for PYS.

The plans for both boats will be filed and kept by PYS in case the boats are hauled again there according to Curtis. This information will only be provided by Marine Travelift for boats that never have been hauled out of the River by PYS.

Please see previous posts on the subject.

(note: this blogger has misplaced her notes from today! When I find them, I’ll finish this post!)